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Sahara-Sahel

On 26 April, ECOWAS and the government of Nigeria held a high-level meeting on pastoralism and cross-border transhumance in Abuja. The conference brought together ministers of security and agriculture/animal resources from ECOWAS countries, Cameroon, Chad, Mauritania and the Central African Republic. Their goal was to find lasting solutions to the escalating conflicts between herders and farmers in the ECOWAS zone and in other regions. Read on

Members of the Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA) gathered from 16-18 April 2018 at OECD headquarters in Paris to validate the final results of the 2017-18 agro-pastoral campaign and take stock of the food and nutrition situation. The Network estimates that 7.1 million people are in need of urgent food and nutrition assistance, of which 3.7 million are in northeastern Nigeria. Read on

The food and nutrition situation is severely deteriorating in parts of the Sahelian belt. According to the Cadre harmonisé analysis, nearly 7.1 million people currently face a crisis situation, especially in zones that are still plagued by insecurity, including in the Lake Chad basin, the Liptako-Gourma region and central Mali. The number of people in need of assistance could reach 10.6 million by June-August 2018. Read on

The most recent issue of the Swiss Foreign Affairs Magazine Politorbis is dedicated to the fight against famine, including an article on the Sahel and West Africa region, produced by the Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC/OECD). It reviews the region’s progress in the fight against food insecurity over the past 30 years. By taking more co-ordinated and collective action, we can work more efficiently and have greater impact. Read on

The United Nations has reset its action plan to address the root causes of the complex crisis in the Sahel. The new UN Support Plan for the Sahel will cover the period 2018-22. During a strategic consultative meeting on the Sahel, held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on 28 March 2018, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed announced five key priorities. Read on

On 21 March, the SWAC Secretariat organised its first webinar drawing on key findings from the West African paper No. 10, “Wars and Conflicts in the Sahara-Sahel.” Some 70 policy-makers, experts and partners participated in the online debate. Read on

The 7th CILSS Steering Committee meeting was opened on 16 March in Lomé. It provided an opportunity to take stock of current regional programmes implemented by CILSS and its development partners. Three major programmes were the focus of discussions. Read on

In this article published by a Burkinabe online platform, Newton Ahmend Barry, president of the country’s independent National Electoral Commission, analyses the double attack that took place on 2 March in Ouagadougou. “We are wrong to believe that France or the G5 Sahel will solve our problems. No people in the world has ever been rescued by another people,” Barry wrote. Read on

Transhumance is a mobile livestock farming method that is based on regular, seasonal movements. The movements are mostly predictable; each year, herders follow the rhythm of the seasons and pass over the same trails and pasturelands that they already know. On the other hand, nomadism is characterised by the continual and unpredictable movements of all members of a family or a group. Most agro-pastoralists in the Sahel today practice semi-transhumance. Read on

The Food Crisis Prevention Network (RPCA) organised a regional consultation on the critical pastoral situation in the Sahel on 21-23 February in Niamey. Bringing together six Sahelian countries, the main host countries on the West African coast and development partners, the Network members made a series of recommendations to the region’s policy makers on how to address the crisis. Read on